Tuesday, July 24, 2012

It's the first time that the Phillies have rallied from being down at the 8th inning all year (0-42). The Phillies pulled out an improbable victory last night Eric Kratz slid home on his stomach to give the Phillies the victory after Jimmy Rollins walked, Juan Pierre singled and moved Rollins to third, Chase Utley walked, and Ryan Howard scored both Rollins and Pierre with a single. Utley moved to third on the Howard single and Carlos Ruiz singled to left center, scoring Utley and Howard went to 2nd base. Another walk to Hunter Pence had the bases loaded with Phillies with Howard coming out of the game with Eric Kratz coming in to run for him, now at third base. Ty Wigginton came in and lofted a sacrifice fly to score Kratz from 3rd base and end the game for the Phillies win 7-6.

A little bit of hustle and a lot of luck goes a long way. This game surely looked as if it would be a loss after the Phillies went to 6-2 after Roy Halladay gave up a three run home run to Carlos Gomez in the top of the 4th inning which hit the left field foul pole.

Francisco Rodriguez hasn't been steady for the Brewers this year. So much so that he hasn't even been the closer for the past week or more. The Brewers have chosen to go with John Axford in that role recently, and it may be that they go to him again now with the blown save and loss that Rodriguez. K-Rod as he is called went an amazing 46-48 in save opportunities last season with the Brewers, but that has since changed a whole lot this year. K-Rod came over from the Mets, as has flip flopped from setup man to closer with the Brewers since he's been with them. Before the Mets, K-Rod also saved 62 games in a season for the Angels back in 2008.

Game 2 of the series continues tonight when Cliff Lee takes on Zack Greinke for the Brewers. Zack has had no decisions in 3 of 4 starts this month for the Brewers.